Upto Yesterday the USA team had never won an Olympic gold medal in women’s freestlye wrestling. Japan’s Saori Yoshida had only 2 losses in her 14 year old career as competitor – she was also the reigning gold medalist at 53kg.
However Helen Maroulis stepped into the spot light. She demonstrated a quick couple of moves in the 2nd half and too the lead against virtually unbeatable Yoshida (full video below). Soon enough the match was over and Maroulis had won.
“Anyone can win it, that’s what I told myself,” Maroulis said. “I just didn’t want to look at Goliath and get scared.”
A stunned Yoshida, head tucked in her hands on the mat, had to settle for silver.
“The opponent was stronger than me,” Yoshida said in tears after the match. “I should have attacked sooner and faster but the opponent was stronger than me.”
Watch the Full upto 53 kg finals:
part1:
part2:
Elsewhere, Kaori Icho was the big story of the day as she attempted to become the first to ever win 4 Olympic gold medals in freestyle wrestling. It was looking like a done deal until she stumbled upn Russia’s Valeria Koblova Zholoblova. Luckily for Icho, she managed to get back into that fight and claim her spot in Olympic history.
Haley Audello made her Olympic debut. After a great debut against Jessica Blaszka, she lost to 3x World champion wrestler Eri Tosaka by 11-2. Tosaka ended up winning a next match and pulling Augello into repecharge. However Kazakhstan’s Eshimova triumphed in that match and went on to compete for a bronze. The bronze ended up going to Sun Yanan of China.
